MYF - Muslim Youth Foundation

As some one who uses the facilities at the MYF in the northern quarter in Manchester, quite a lot it was amazing to brighten up the outside of it.

The MYF is located on lower Tomas street and although the northern quarter is hip and full of art that particular street is rather set back and encourages a lot of graffiti and littering.

Brother Reda the Imam, who looks after the MYF he always there organising and taking care of the building and making sure people who enter are always greeted and looked after.

The MYF is a great place for not just the Muslim community to come a pray, read Salah and break fast, but for the whole community to enjoy.They also have a women’s section and study groups too. They hold an open day once a month for the local community to come to the MYF and enjoy different events from face painting for children to henna painting and how to tie a scarf amongst various other activities. They are usually open between Mid day and 9:00pm.

My inicial design for the front shutter was do to something that would be bright but also something that reflected Islam and reflect the friendly and open nature of the MYF, when I think of art and Islam for me it’s usually geometrical design with it being used in Islamic art and architecture around the world.

As much as I love geometrical it’s not something that comes naturally to me - I decided to think outside the box and do something with nature and a little book design.

In teaching of Islam the first word that was revealed in the Quran was READ .. to inform people to read and empower yourself with knowledge.

I loved this idea and created a design using this as inspiration.

I also got in contact with the Tree of life centre in Wythenshaw. As a Manchester based artist I am part of a community re-paint scheme. Which is a program Preventing a valuable resource from going to waste. The paint comes from individuals, retailers, decorators and manufacturers which is donated if they don't require it and then sold and redistributed to communities at a affordable price. Community RePaint is a UK wide paint reuse network, sponsored by Dulux, this scheme allow me as an artist to work at a very low cost to not only do my art but also brighten up the community. As sometimes its becomes unaffordable for people to access art but also as an artist to do the thing I love the most brighten up a community.

Preliminary Design

Starting work ..

Little Instagram Story of me doing my thing taken by @alittlestepfurther